Thirst

Wet snow drips misery from the rooftops.  
I shouldn't have had that last bottle of beer.
Or the dozen before it. Or that shot of tequila – 
I guess that was not such a brilliant idea.
 
But last night, I was thirsty for beer and adventure
and a glint in your eye told me you were too.
So the drinks had no bottom, and the clock had no meaning,
'til the sky started turning a lighter blue.
 
You bought the first round at the bar of the venue,
a scene we've rehearsed on many a day.
Cold beer in the dark, heartbeat soaring with drumbeat,
and on stage someone sings what we never could say.
 
We picked up more drinks on the way to the party.
It was somebody's birthday, with cake and a grill.
Someone brought out tequila. Someone brought out a camera.
In the pictures you smile as only you will.
 
Early this morning I woke up on your sofa 
and snuck out of the house while you were asleep.
Maybe the next time we meet I will tell you
that it's for you that my thirst runs so deep.
Berlin, January 2013
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Berlin Book Fix – No.6: Goldhahn & Sampson

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Where to find books in English in Berlin?

No.6 – Goldhahn & Sampson in Prenzlauer Berg. The cook book lover’s treasure chest.

Goldhahn & Sampson caters for the mind as well as the palate. They sell food, wine and delicatessen – local specialities from around Berlin and elsewhere. A contradiction? Not at all: speciality food is generally rooted in a certain locality. That’s what makes it special and different from the foods from other localities, and of course from the mass-produced products that have the same taste (or lack thereof) everywhere. Continue reading

A Berlin Lunch – Liver, Potatoes and Beer (and all local products!)

img_0899-1My lunch today was a “Berlin Lunch” in more senses than one. Fried Liver with Potatoes is a traditional Berlin dish, and I also made it with all local ingredients: potatoes, greens, liver, onions – and craft beer.

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Berlin Book Fix – No.4: Curious Fox New and Used English Books

img_20161022_180755-1Where to find books in English in Berlin?

No. 4 – Curious Fox New and Used English Books in Neukölln. Excellent selection of Irish writers, lovely spot for a cup of tea.

The Curious Fox has its burrow on Flughafenstraße, where the hill dips down again  from the Flughafen Tempelhof heights towards the shopping district around Rathaus Neukölln.

It is a cosy shop with a red sofa by the entrance and a couple of easy chairs in the back room – you can also get tea or coffee at the counter. Locals drop in for a chat as much as to browse the collection.  Continue reading

Berlin Book Fix – No.3: Saint George’s New and Secondhand English Bookshop

img_20161020_143607.jpg Where to find books in English in Berlin?

No. 3 – Saint George’s New and Secondhand English Bookshop in Prenzlauer Berg. Well-stocked with interesting titles. They know what they are doing.

You enter through the fiction section. Plenty of good things here. The nonfiction section – starting by the cash register – is ample and organised into many themes. Genre literature and children’s books are in the very back. There are a few comfy chairs around – leather chesterfield ones, the type I would like to have in my own library, should I ever have the room for one. #classyreadingnook Continue reading

Berlin Book Fix – No.2: Dussmann’s English Bookshop

img_20161013_170224.jpgWhere to find books in English in Berlin?

No.2 – Dussmann’s English Bookshop: Two floors of well-selected fiction and non-fiction.

Fair warning: You’ll not only find here what you’re looking for, but also what you hadn’t been looking for. Look for the recommendations on the central table in the downstairs fiction section, then head upstairs to nonfiction and the comfy window seats.

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Berlin Book Fix – No. 1: Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek

img_20161013_113653.jpgWhere to find books in English in Berlin?

No.1 – The Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek – a public library, free to enter and cheap to borrow. However, the selection in English is quite small. It’s split up by country (UK/Ireland, Australia/New Zealand, North America) and they are not all next to each other. Having said that, the shelves are clearly labeled and not hard to find.

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Berlin Favourites – Pizza a Pezzi

Just a picture of tomatoes

Just a picture of tomatoes

This one is about simple pleasures. The pleasant and civilized feeling of grabbing a bite to eat after work on your way to a meeting, and that bite being a slice of fresh pizza made with good ingredients, served hot on a board, with a glass of red wine – for 4 Euros. Served in 5 Minutes. Good food IS possible, even in a hurry and on a Neukölln street corner. They have a few choices – one of them, to my absolute delight, is ‘nduja, the chilli-spiced soft pork sausage from Calabria. It sits on top of the rocket-covered pizza slices, like an orange-red devil’s egg. In the oven, the pork fat melts and the ‘nduja becomes a little chunky puddle of heat on top of your crispy steaming slice of dinner. Fantastic. Though I recommend beer with that.

There is ample place to sit at wooden tables, and in warm weather they open all the windows wide and serve you and your friends hot delicious pizza with your umpteenth beer of a summer evening.
What do you call walnut-sized amorphous pieces of soft yet solid something? Not chunks, as in bread. Not balls, because they aren’t. Clump sounds to heavy, so does clod (plus would you want to eat a clod? I certainly wouldn’t).  Nearly a glob, though that would be too soft, like mashed potatoes, and you don’t spoon ‘nduja, you dig it out with your fingers…but I digress. Must be the wine.

Pizza a Pezzi, Weserstraße 208, 12047 Berlin-Neukölln.